Xenofestation 1-06
~Terra Veneri~

Paragonas Vaunt

[SAMPLE]

 

Entry 1-06/D - Terra Veneri

Station INF3, Lagrange Point 5, Venus orbital shell

The door opened.

Amber Codrington stepped into the round chamber beyond.

She knew she was still processing what had happened the first time she had stepped into one of these chambers, still working through the things she had experienced, the way they had made her feel. She wasn't sure how she felt about returning so soon to that impersonal, wipe-clean bed. But she was resolved to get the second implanting done as soon as possible, just as Nicole had advised her to do, and at least she knew what to expect this time.

She stopped short.

The chamber was about ten metres across, circular and white-walled, like the room in which she had met the pump fly. But, unlike that chamber, this one had no bed. Instead, almost the entire floor was covered with what looked like soil, powdery-looking and light grey in colour.

The air was hot and desiccated, kiln-baked. Amber could feel heat radiating from overhead panels, and perspiration immediately started to prickle on her skin.

The only feature in the room was what looked like a broad wooden post, which stood near the centre of the space, at an angle to the vertical as if it were a fencepost that had been struck by a carelessly-steered ground craft.

Four camera drones were already circling around, drifting semi-aimlessly near the ceiling.

"Just get yourself settled, and then we'll get started," said Diane's voice over her microbead as the door closed to shut Amber into the oven heat.

"Get myself settled where, exactly?" Amber asked in confusion.

"Do you see the post?"

"Yes..." she replied, doubtfully, "Are you planning to burn me at the stake? Because it's hot enough in here already."

Or sacrifice me to some mythical dragon?

"Nothing so exciting. The post is just there to give you an anchor point and support your back. Get comfortable, this will take a while."

Amber placed a foot gingerly onto the dry earth, testing the unfamiliar feeling. It was soft underfoot, slightly springy, and a strange smell rose wherever she stepped, which despite the parched heat of the room put her in mind of the basement of her hab block, of mildew and dank air.

The basement where she used to go to fuck boys.

For a moment she was transported back to that basement by the association the smell sparked in her, the impression vivid, of a time of certainty, or at least of comfortable uncertainty, where the only worry was deciding which block boy to get on in order to get off.

Her cunt twitched at the memory.

For Amber, that mustiness was the smell of fucking.

It might help, she decided. A familiarity to hold on to, in this unfamiliar place of unknown creatures and alien acts.

She approached the post cautiously, experiencing the curious feeling of dirt pressing between her toes, then crouched to put her hand on the ground and play a few grains through her fingers. It was powdery, but where it picked up moisture from her sweaty palm it clung together in little clumps.

"So do I..?"

"Just sit down against the post."

Amber had never sat on bare earth before, not clothed, certainly not naked. It felt rather odd on her bare buttocks as she lowered herself gingerly down onto it. Not unpleasant, but strangely ticklish.

"Hey, if I sit down here I'm going to get all this dirt on my..."

Up my...

"Don't worry, it's quite safe," Diane replied, "And anyway, we'll wash it all away afterwards."

Slowly, with extreme care, as if settling into a hot bath, Amber lowered herself down. The baked dirt pressed between her buttocks, squeezing into the cleft of her body. Carefully she leaned back against the post, its slope leaving her reclined around forty-five degrees. Her legs were in front of her, feet planted slightly apart, knees bent.

One of the camera drones dropped down and took up position in front of her, just beyond her knees.

"Spread your legs a little more," came Diane's voice on the microbead, "Little more... yes, that's good. Is that comfortable?"

"I suppose," Amber replied, gazing at the camera as it, in turn, gazed at her exposed mound. "It's rather hot in here."

"I'm sorry, this is as low as we can set the room temperature, but we'll do something to help keep you cool in a moment. There's a water tube behind the post just by your right hand. Make sure you drink plenty. All good?"

"I suppose," Amber repeated, shifting to settle herself. There was nowhere to put her hands, so she placed them either side of the post behind her. It felt like real wood.

The dirt beneath her buttocks was starting to clump together in the perspiration seeping from her skin.

It felt clammy, unsettling.

She looked around.

"So where's the-"

Without warning, water started to drizzle down on her from above.

Amber jumped in surprise.

The water was cool, which was pleasant, falling in a gentle spray from an aperture somewhere in the ceiling, like an aqua shower, and it was directed only over Amber's breasts and belly. Despite the seemingly gentle flow, her medcorset rapidly became soaked through.

As more water fell, it started to gather into droplets, which merged and ran in rivulets down her belly, then over her exposed mound, before trickling onto the dry earth beneath. She put a hand into the falling rain, caught some drops, and used it to cool her forehead.

The flow continued.

The dirt beneath her was starting to dampen, softening, the earth first clumping and then, as it became waterlogged, slowly turning to thick, claggy mud. More mud splashed up her thighs as a sheen of water formed on the surface, was absorbed, started to turn the mud into a quagmire.

Amber was alarmed to find she was starting to sink into it.

"Diane... this is all getting a bit messy..."

"Don't worry, Amber, the soil is a specially-formulated biosilicate. It won't harm you."

"Okay, I don't know what that is, but how deep am I going to sink in..?"

Already she was nearly hip-deep, the soft mud pressing between the cheeks of her buttocks and into the cleft of her vagina. The damp warmth, like the cling of wet underwear, the spray of water trickling down her body, and the two litres of water she'd had to drink...

"Um... Diane, can I get out for a minute? I need to take a bio break."

"No, that's okay, you're fine to go ahead where you are."

"You don't understand. I really need to pee."

"That's okay, Amber, just go where you are."

"What? Right here?"

"Sure. Just go for it whenever you're ready."

Amber glanced up at the camera drone in front of her. It had settled down lower, and was hovering just beyond her knees, its impassive lenses staring down between her legs, just at the point where her mound was starting to disappear below the mud.

"Can you turn the camera away first? I can't concentrate with it watching me."

"Sorry, I'm afraid the camera needs to stay. But I'll tell you what. I need to speak to Ornella for a bit, so I'll turn away from the screen for a couple of minutes, how's that?"

"I suppose that's... oh fuck it."

Amber closed her eyes and tried to shut out the thought of the camera watching her, and after a while she found relief, yet more clammy warmth spreading into the damp beneath her.

She opened her eyes again and stared defiantly at the camera drone staring back at her.

"Fuck off, you," she muttered, and went to kick it away.

Her foot wouldn't lift.

It was bound by the wet mud, which turned out to be surprisingly claggy, totally unwilling to yield her up.

She was stuck.

"Er, Diane..." she said into her microbead.

There was silence for a few moments, during which Amber began to worry about how stuck she might actually be.

"Oh hai, Amber, were you calling me?" came Diane's voice, after a few moments, "Are you all done?"

"Yes, I'm done," Amber said, shortly, "But's that's not why I was calling you. I'm stuck."

"That's fine."

"Fine? I can't move my legs!"

"Don't worry," Diane replied, not answering the point directly, "Try to keep your hands free if you can. And relax. There won't be long to wait now."

Amber gazed at the door on the other side of the room.

"So when are you going to let the creature in?"

"Let it in? Amber, it's already in there with you."

And then Amber felt it.

Rising up beneath her body.

Beneath the mud.

It has followed the scent trail she had laid for it. It had responded to her body's chemical signal. Now it answered her unthinking call.

She tried to lift herself then, to pull away from it, but she couldn't move, sitting defenceless in that shallow pit of warm, sucking, deepening mud, with rain teeming down onto her body, cascading in runnels down her wet skin, into the quagmire between her thighs where she was trapped, as the invisible, unknown thing beneath her pressed upwards against her helpless mound.